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Yeonjiam Hermitage – 연지암 (Gyeongju)
Hermitage History and Legend Yeonjiam Hermitage is located in southeastern Gyeongju. The hermitage was first founded during the latter part of Japanese Colonial Rule (1910-45) by a Buddhist laywoman named Kim Yeonji. According to the hermitage legend, Kim had a dream in which the sound of a wooden hand bell, or moktak in Korean, was coming from the middle of a field. When Kim went to this field, she started digging. It was during this dig that she discovered a statue of Yaksayeorae-bul (The Medicine Buddha, and the Buddha of the Eastern Paradise). This would end up being the “Standing Stone Buddha Statue in Hwalseong-ri, Gyeongju,” which is a provincial…